I read with utter consternation the comments attributed to the Uganda Police Chief in the article ‘’City rioters had guns-Kayihura’’ which was published in the New Vision of Monday, September 14, 2009. The all powerful Police Chief Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura is a man whose person, intellect and military credentials I used to regard in honor (like many other Ugandan leaders and achievers) but have over the time been forced to treat them with disdain they deserve because of being the traitors that they have become.
‘’ POLICE chief Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura has said some rioters had illegal guns and are responsible for the death and injuries of several people…..He warned that the Police would shoot on sight anybody who engaged in acts of violence…… Quoting the Penal Code, Kayihura said the Police are allowed to use reasonable force and firearms in dispersing and arresting rioters….. The section of the code also indicates that the Police “shall not be liable in any criminal or civil proceeding for having, by the use of such force, caused harm or death to any person.”
The same article attributed equally provocative comments to the Government Chief whip, Hon. Daudi Migereko a man whose credibility does not come out vividly to my mind for the time I have seen him on the national political scene. However, knowing his political allegiance, association and the utterances attributed to him, one should, on a deliberate thought quiet easily obtain a transcript of what he represents.
‘’Migereko also said the Government was not responsible for the deaths during the riots. He argued that the security forces were only trying to secure the lives of innocent Ugandans. He sent condolences…We shall investigate and bring to book all the inciters, perpetrators, organizers and planners of the riots…. Migereko further lauded the Katikiro’s “constructive engagement” with the Government…’’
I challenge the Police chief to tell the nation and name those rioters whom he is claiming were carrying illegal guns and allege that they shot and killed people? He should also tell the nation how many guns he has recovered from the 550 suspected rioters under his custody.
I would also like to challenge the Government Chief whip to tell the nation who is responsible for the loss of life and injuries inflicted on innocent people? It is laughable for him to say government shall investigate and bring to book the inciters and perpetrators of the riots. Is it not clear to him that the show down was between the stubborn government officials and the Buganda loyalists? If this is not clear to him then he should treat this as a hint to the investigation. Should this not be a clear hint, then he can go further and summon the Katikiro of Buganda and the President of Uganda who I am sure will provide the investigators with very useful information.
It is both cynical and laughable for the Government Chief Whip to shamelessly smuggle FDC and DP into the showdown between Buganda and the Central Government. The whole argument sounds so lazy; it is in fact a shallow and naïve political talk which is not going to solve any problem.
All these lazy arguments and insensitive comments are being raised on top dead bodies of innocent people who lost their lives in broad day light, at the hands of the security agencies that are paid to protect them and purportedly working day and night to do exactly that. Overnight, innocent kids have been turned into orphans and women into widows who will soon turn into beggars simply because of reckless and insensitive conduct of police personnel whose powerful chief openly tells a lie to the nation that firing live bullets at demonstrators is use of reasonable force which is provided in the Penal Code.
By any standard the Police and the Military displayed the highest form of unprofessionalism in dealing with demonstrations in Kampala and other areas; I watched the ugly scenes on international TV channels where police was physically mugging and beating whoever they came across as if they were killing snakes and of course dead bodies which were laying on the streets. It is bad hearing about the death of all the 14 or so people, but beyond imagination especially with the death of a 2 year old toddler, a school going young man and Yahweh Wesige Mukama a progressive business man in Kawempe, who apparently was shot in front of his two buildings, a supermarket and hardware shop which I hear he owned.
The comments of the all powerful Police Chief and the Government Chief whip clearly demonstrate their insensitivity and that of the establishment which they represent. The expectation of the citizenry at this point in time is to get accountability in form of answers and assurance that root causes of the ugly scenes are being addressed to avoid similar situations in future, instead of providing this useful information, one gets surprised to hear threats being issued, lies being peddled in broad day light and heaps of praises being passed on to the Katikiro of Buganda for ‘constructive engagement’ by those who should be providing answers under normal circumstances.
Imagine a government representative putting forward an argument that what the security forces were doing in cracking the demonstrations in the style they did was simply trying to secure the lives of innocent Ugandans. What about those who were indiscriminately shot at and killed? Were they not innocent Ugandans? Or is that Mr. Migereko is trying to say that some Ugandans are more important than others?
Fellow Ugandans! It is time to wake up; we are living in times when the word of the powerful has come to supersede the law. This state of affair would mean that individuals become more powerful than institutions, they will direct and things will happen. Unfortunately, when things go wrong they will blame the institutions which they themselves have undermined and fraudulently exploited to their advantage at the expense of all the rest.
This is a form of terror which we should boldly speak against, there is no reason why the word of a Police Chief, Head of Intelligence Agency or Presidential Adviser should become the law or replace it and worse still the powerful taking themselves to being above the law.
There is a dangerous culture of trickery which is developing in Uganda where individual government officials are abusing the public trust for selfish reasons or sheer political manipulation. They abuse the law or simply bypass established procedure and when things backfire they position themselves as having acted on behalf of government. We have seen individual ministers and government bureaucrats signing fraudulent deals where the government loses colossal sums of taxpayers’ money. These people are never brought to book because all mistakes are always portrayed as having been committed by government. Why it is that contribution of individual government officials is easily recognized when achievements are realized while the failures and mistakes are simply depicted as government responsibility?
It is high time we started to make a distinction about of who is doing what, when and for what reason. Only then shall we be able to hold them responsible for their actions, no more should we accept the lousy generalization of responsibility which is conveniently portrayed as government responsibility where in actual sense and ultimately government turns out to be all but nobody.
‘’ POLICE chief Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura has said some rioters had illegal guns and are responsible for the death and injuries of several people…..He warned that the Police would shoot on sight anybody who engaged in acts of violence…… Quoting the Penal Code, Kayihura said the Police are allowed to use reasonable force and firearms in dispersing and arresting rioters….. The section of the code also indicates that the Police “shall not be liable in any criminal or civil proceeding for having, by the use of such force, caused harm or death to any person.”
The same article attributed equally provocative comments to the Government Chief whip, Hon. Daudi Migereko a man whose credibility does not come out vividly to my mind for the time I have seen him on the national political scene. However, knowing his political allegiance, association and the utterances attributed to him, one should, on a deliberate thought quiet easily obtain a transcript of what he represents.
‘’Migereko also said the Government was not responsible for the deaths during the riots. He argued that the security forces were only trying to secure the lives of innocent Ugandans. He sent condolences…We shall investigate and bring to book all the inciters, perpetrators, organizers and planners of the riots…. Migereko further lauded the Katikiro’s “constructive engagement” with the Government…’’
I challenge the Police chief to tell the nation and name those rioters whom he is claiming were carrying illegal guns and allege that they shot and killed people? He should also tell the nation how many guns he has recovered from the 550 suspected rioters under his custody.
I would also like to challenge the Government Chief whip to tell the nation who is responsible for the loss of life and injuries inflicted on innocent people? It is laughable for him to say government shall investigate and bring to book the inciters and perpetrators of the riots. Is it not clear to him that the show down was between the stubborn government officials and the Buganda loyalists? If this is not clear to him then he should treat this as a hint to the investigation. Should this not be a clear hint, then he can go further and summon the Katikiro of Buganda and the President of Uganda who I am sure will provide the investigators with very useful information.
It is both cynical and laughable for the Government Chief Whip to shamelessly smuggle FDC and DP into the showdown between Buganda and the Central Government. The whole argument sounds so lazy; it is in fact a shallow and naïve political talk which is not going to solve any problem.
All these lazy arguments and insensitive comments are being raised on top dead bodies of innocent people who lost their lives in broad day light, at the hands of the security agencies that are paid to protect them and purportedly working day and night to do exactly that. Overnight, innocent kids have been turned into orphans and women into widows who will soon turn into beggars simply because of reckless and insensitive conduct of police personnel whose powerful chief openly tells a lie to the nation that firing live bullets at demonstrators is use of reasonable force which is provided in the Penal Code.
By any standard the Police and the Military displayed the highest form of unprofessionalism in dealing with demonstrations in Kampala and other areas; I watched the ugly scenes on international TV channels where police was physically mugging and beating whoever they came across as if they were killing snakes and of course dead bodies which were laying on the streets. It is bad hearing about the death of all the 14 or so people, but beyond imagination especially with the death of a 2 year old toddler, a school going young man and Yahweh Wesige Mukama a progressive business man in Kawempe, who apparently was shot in front of his two buildings, a supermarket and hardware shop which I hear he owned.
The comments of the all powerful Police Chief and the Government Chief whip clearly demonstrate their insensitivity and that of the establishment which they represent. The expectation of the citizenry at this point in time is to get accountability in form of answers and assurance that root causes of the ugly scenes are being addressed to avoid similar situations in future, instead of providing this useful information, one gets surprised to hear threats being issued, lies being peddled in broad day light and heaps of praises being passed on to the Katikiro of Buganda for ‘constructive engagement’ by those who should be providing answers under normal circumstances.
Imagine a government representative putting forward an argument that what the security forces were doing in cracking the demonstrations in the style they did was simply trying to secure the lives of innocent Ugandans. What about those who were indiscriminately shot at and killed? Were they not innocent Ugandans? Or is that Mr. Migereko is trying to say that some Ugandans are more important than others?
Fellow Ugandans! It is time to wake up; we are living in times when the word of the powerful has come to supersede the law. This state of affair would mean that individuals become more powerful than institutions, they will direct and things will happen. Unfortunately, when things go wrong they will blame the institutions which they themselves have undermined and fraudulently exploited to their advantage at the expense of all the rest.
This is a form of terror which we should boldly speak against, there is no reason why the word of a Police Chief, Head of Intelligence Agency or Presidential Adviser should become the law or replace it and worse still the powerful taking themselves to being above the law.
There is a dangerous culture of trickery which is developing in Uganda where individual government officials are abusing the public trust for selfish reasons or sheer political manipulation. They abuse the law or simply bypass established procedure and when things backfire they position themselves as having acted on behalf of government. We have seen individual ministers and government bureaucrats signing fraudulent deals where the government loses colossal sums of taxpayers’ money. These people are never brought to book because all mistakes are always portrayed as having been committed by government. Why it is that contribution of individual government officials is easily recognized when achievements are realized while the failures and mistakes are simply depicted as government responsibility?
It is high time we started to make a distinction about of who is doing what, when and for what reason. Only then shall we be able to hold them responsible for their actions, no more should we accept the lousy generalization of responsibility which is conveniently portrayed as government responsibility where in actual sense and ultimately government turns out to be all but nobody.
For God and My Country.
Published by the Independent; Uganda Talks.
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